Leukemia
Cancer and Cookies
My advice as an elevator pitch:
Cancer fucking sucks, but you don’t!!!! This cancer journey is about you. Keep that in mind. Balance will be the key. Knowledge is power; take notes, ask questions, and be curious. You don’t have to do this alone.
Read More...Turning Loss to Lemonade
Turning thirty is a big deal. It’s one of the milestones we celebrate. “The end of a chapter, and the start of a new one,” is what people love to say. It’s Real Adulthood, the period of wedding planning, pumping and dumping, and racing to pick up at daycare. It coincides with how a woman’s biological clock ticks louder as she gets closer to her thirties.
Read More...Cancer’s Crash Course in Relationships…
Cancer is a disease caused by the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body. It has uncontrollably killed my relationships and then has divided my surviving relationships into abnormal categories. These categories are: cancer is slowly killing us, cancer made us stronger, and cancer left us somewhere in the middle. Cancer has impacted my friendships, and I haven’t found a treatment that works yet.
Read More...The Phrases That Define Us
“Call it by its full name—just saying ‘cancer’ gives it power over you.”
That was the advice given to me by my first managing oncologist (he helped manage my treatment, while a local guy monitored and took care of things if I was in the hospital) near the time I was diagnosed.
Read More...How It Feels to Be an AYA
Being an AYA is a unique experience—especially when you have a rare cancer like me. AYA cancer is rare, and then I have a rare cancer on top of that. How do I hate thee cancer? Let me count the ways.
Wait, I can’t quote/butcher Shakespeare like that. I don’t want my high school English teacher to come hunt me down (Mr. S was a big guy!), so let me use something not cribbed from the most quoted author in the English language.
Read More...Dual Diagnosis: Cancer Patient and Survivor
I consider a challenge to be a surprise; it sounds more fun. What I was concerned about at the beginning of my cancer journey are things I don’t even think about now. For example, managing the side effects of medication; I have that down to a science. I am a chronic cancer patient, and the unseen challenges/ surprises of survivorship might be slightly different than you think.
Read More...Scrambled Eggs
Getting out of bed has been so difficult lately. It’s been months since I’ve had a good night’s sleep. It seems like no matter how many blankets I use or how many layers I wear at night, I’m always freezing. Last night I woke up twice in a cold sweat.
Read More...The Overlook
Everything is so green. That’s what I remember thinking on the ride back to my apartment after my hospital stay. Being someone who enjoys spending time outside, two weeks of being stuck inside four white hospital room walls with a window overlooking a city street was pretty much torture, especially after a leukemia diagnosis.
Read More...Dear Cancer, Your Pain Made Me Stronger
Now I’ve written a book about my battle with you, so others will have the courage to fight you too. You might have thought you were powerful, but my faith was more powerful than you. I trusted my doctors, and I trusted God; together, you were defeated. You tried to destroy me, but in the end, you only made me stronger.
Read More...Cancer vs Coronavirus
As a cancer patient, the only silver lining that I can currently think of during a global pandemic is that our oncology team has prepared us so very well.
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